


these graves are not for us

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-21 12:13:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/900177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Almost) Nobody dies</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. rocks fall, nobody dies

**Author's Note:**

> de-anon from the SNK kink meme: http://snkkink.dreamwidth.org/2124.html?thread=1808716#cmt1808716

One moment of courage. That's all he needs. Only that, and everything will be fine. The kids will be fine, Carla will be fine, he will be fine and they'll all make it out alive. Deep in his good-for-nothing heart, he just has to muster the muscle memory from training; for Maria's sake there are buildings all around and he just has to-

The hooks shoot out and embed themselves in a wall that has somehow managed to stay standing, and with a yell Hannes leaps into the air, drawing both his swords. The titan turns its head to follow his gaze, but with speed he doesn't remember ever possessing, he zips past the titan's maw, barely avoiding getting his leg bitten off. But in his determination, he doesn't even hesitate when he presses his swords deep in the titan's nape and _pulls._

The titan doesn't have time to make more than a groan before it begins to collapse, eyes comically wide and mouth uselessly flapping as it collapses, mere feet away from Eren and Mikasa. They're both staring up at him with wide, terrified eyes; even Carla is doing her best to turn her head.

"Hannes..." Eren breathes, but the man shakes his head and walks over quickly. 

"Eren, not now. We have to get your mother out of here." He takes a quick glimpse around, giving his heart a moment to slow down and for the adrenaline to fade. "There aren't any other titans around now, but we have to move quickly."

Eren swallows. "Y-yeah! We'll do it! Come on Mikasa!" That gets the two kids more determined than ever, clutching at the giant beam with all their strength and attempting to free their mother.

Carla swallows, and as Hannes hurriedly pulls the beam up, he can see that she's trying to hold back tears. "Hannes... thank you..."

"It was nothing," he grunts. "Just live. For the kids."

They manage, eventually; Hannes arms are shaking from effort and the surge of terror that has yet to dissipate, but he carries Carla all the way to the ferry anyway. Eren and Mikasa run beside him, legs working quickly in order to keep up with his longer paces. All around them there is smoke, the scent of blood heavy in the air, and screams.

"Hannes," Eren says suddenly as they near the ferry. "I'm gonna be like you."

 _I hope not,_ is Hannes's first thought, but he doesn't voice that out loud. 

"You saved my mom," Eren says, determined, when Hannes doesn't answer for a while. "I- I'm gonna make sure that it won't happen again. I'll get stronger so I can kill the titans too! That's why, I'll join the military!"

"Eren!" Carla tries to twist around, to stare her son in the face and force him to change his mind, but abruptly she seems to realize something and stops. She sighs, a bit exasperated, and very defeated.

Hannes doesn't bother to reply to Eren and helps all three of them on board the ship safely. "Make sure you stay together," he says to Mikasa and Eren. "Look out for each other, you got that?" Mikasa nods gravely, Eren stares up with blazing green eyes.

"And Eren..." Hannes doesn't really know what he should say. Carla is watching him closely, her legs stretched out in front of her, and even Mikasa is giving him a severe look. "I know you'll be strong, and you'll definitely get stronger, but never forget what's important, okay?"

The boy looks confused, but before he has a chance to ask what Hannes means, a voice shouts, "Eren! Mikasa! Mrs. Yeager!"

It's Armin, of course. Hannes watches Armin envelop his friends in a giant hug; even in such a crowded ship nobody yells at them to move or make space. Happiness is in short supply right now, and people are willing to take whatever is available, even if it is second-hand.

Hannes stays a moment longer, and turns away. He has work to do, and Eren's going to be just fine.


	2. miles to go before i sleep

The caravans headed back to Wall Maria are hot and smelly. A couple of people complain about them, of course, but the glares from everyone else around them quickly shut them up. The only sound to be heard is shifting cloth as people squirm in their seats and the racket of wheels spinning on the earth. 

They can't spare many horses, so most of the people had been ordered to march. Reuben Arlert is one of the lucky few who had been allowed to ride instead of walk. However, not even all of the elderly had been allowed on the carts. Wall Maria is far; nobody doubts that majority, if not all of the elderly, will end up dead. Those not eaten by titans would probably drop of exhaustion before even reaching Wall Maria.

"Fuck this," somebody says roughly, breaking the silence in the cart. "What's the fucking point of this?! There's no way we're going to be able to kill the titans, why the fuck are we here?"

It's a young woman, her hair red and ridiculously curled; it would have been radiant in almost any other time, but now it's matted with dust and crusted all over with grime, knotted so wildly it would be impossible to untangle. She hugs her knees to her chest and through the grim lighting, Reuben can see her knuckles turn pale. In the quiet that follows, Reuben can just barely hear her say, "We were supposed to get married..."

The man next to him snorts. "Ain't that hard to figure out," he says. "They sent us out to die. Nothing else other than that."

It's the sharp truth that many of them have been avoiding. Everyone falls silent after that, except for the young woman who places her head on her knees and sobs.

-

Reuben was born three months after his parents entered the walls. 

His mother was a baker and his father a painter. She died to disease a few months after he was born, and all of Reuben's earliest memories are of his father and his paintings; alternating between dark and mournful portraits of a woman Reuben will never know, and vividly gory images of the massacre of humanity. Everything in his childhood is coated in similar overtones- from humanity's dwindling hope that the titans can be killed, to his father never being able to look him in the eye, to being born in a world where people are nothing more than livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

Occasionally, though, his father will paint different things. Things like endless meadows full of blooming flowers, giant expanses of sand dotted with strangely shaped plants, ocean water glimmering in the light of a setting sun- all of these wonderful places that are his father's last memory of peaceful times.

The paintings were all sold off, eventually, to pay for food and clothing and other necessities. Reuben is sixteen when the government bans all mention and depiction of the world outside the walls.

"We'll go back," his father says, voice full of something tender that Reuben has never heard before. "Someday, I'll show you everything. The world is a beautiful place, you'll see."

It's the only promise his father has ever made to him. 

He keeps it close to his heart, and never forgets it even as the years tick away. He marries, has a daughter, and makes both his wife and child the same promise. Their chance doesn't come; his wife dies in an accident and his daughter herself marries and gives birth to a son.

His daughter dies with her husband, somewhere where he cannot help them. Armin is six years old and already an orphan, a tiny, underfed child who doesn't understand why his parents aren't here. 

He resolves to himself to do whatever it takes for Armin to have a happier childhood than he did.

-

Reuben stumbles over the corpse of the wild-haired woman, but manages to catch his footing just in time even though his ankle feels like it's about to snap. 

His heart is like a drum in his chest, he can feel every single beat resound throughout his body. He feels like a man thirty years younger as he scrambles away from the hand that reaches down for him. It's almost not enough; he manages to escape only because the titan was distracted by another person, one with an actual weapon in hand. He should feel bad, because despite having a sword what can he do to the titan if he can't reach high enough to kill it? But he doesn't; all he feels is relief, pure euphoric relief that he will not die.

In the haze of adrenaline, for some reason he can hear his father's voice again.

His vision is blurring from strain and through a haze of exhausted disconnect he can feel the muscles in his calves trembling, but he continues onwards even as hundreds of people die around him.

He's the only one that Armin has left- no, that isn't true. Armin is all he has left. 

Armin, and promises.

-

When they get back, the few hundred people left, Armin clutches at him so tightly he can almost imagine his bones breaking, just like what happened to the bitter man he sat with on the way to the slaughter ground when he didn't manage to avoid the fist headed his way-

"Armin," Reuben says, partly to make him let go and partly to make himself stop remembering. The young boy looks up with wide blue eyes partially hidden by the brim of the straw hat he wears. "Someday, we'll go outside. The world is a beautiful place; I'll show you. You'll see."

Armin buries himself in his arms again. "Okay," Armin says. "We will."

"It's a promise," Reuben says.

-

"I'm going to join the military," Armin says privately to Mikasa and Eren, the three of them sitting at the back of the small cramped house they now all share. Inside, Mrs. Yeager is fussing over Armin's grandpa, moving around as best as she can by pulling herself along in a specially made chair that Armin's grandfather had managed to procure earlier that year. The sound of their conversation occasionally drifts out through the window, slightly muffled by the drawn curtains.

Eren looks at him in surprise, Mikasa's face is oddly blank as always. Eren himself decided the day that Hannes saved their mother, and Mikasa goes wherever Eren does; that Hannes told her to watch out for Eren only strengthens her resolve even more. "Armin?"

Armin's hands clutch at the hat tightly. "My grandpa had to go because they wanted to reclaim Wall Maria, he had to go because there aren't enough soldiers. If- If I join the military, he won't have to go again; they won't make him go if there are soldiers..."

It's a child's naive hope- because if they feel like it the government can order the rest of them to die and there's nothing they can do about it- but neither Eren nor Mikasa comment.

"I'll get stronger," Armin declares, mostly to himself. "I'll join the military, and we'll... kill all the titans, and we'll all get to see the world. Together." Now he glances up to his two friends, the first trace of uncertainty he's shown. "Right?"

"Definitely," Eren confirms immediately.

"It's a promise," Mikasa says.


	3. interlude i

"I'm joining the Military Police," Jean says loudly in the hall, and a few curious people stop what they're doing to listen in on the conversation. "Marco, you and I, we're going to make the top 10 easily, and then we can apply for the Military Police together."

"Yeah, that sounds great," Marco says with a smile. "Where do the rest of you plan on applying?"

"Military Police, of course!" Connie declares. "It'd make everyone in my village proud! I mean, who wouldn't want to live inside? And you have to be the best if you want to join- 'course that's where I'm going!"

"Hah!" Jean says. "There's no way you're going to beat me, Springer!"

"Jean, calm down," Marco says chidingly. "What about you?" He turns to glance at Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. "Where do you want to go?"

"The Garrison," Eren replies, giving Jean a glare. "They guard the walls and make sure everyone can evacuate safely if there's another attack. We're training to be able to defend people; not just sit around do nothing when you've got the strength to help others!"

Jean's eyes flash, and once again Marco is forced to intervene. "What about you, Mikasa?"

"I'm going where Eren goes," she says without hesitation. Well, just about as expected, really.

"And you, Armin?"

The small boy is quiet for a while, staring down at the surface of the table. His silence attracts a few more curious listeners. "I'm going to join the Scouting Legion."

"What?!" Eren exlcaims, glancing at his childhood friend in surprise. Even Mikasa seems somewhat alarmed. "The Scouting Legion?"

"You?" Jean asks, distinctly unimpressed. Mikasa turns her glare on him, and Marco even elbows him slightly.

"Armin, you're going to get yourself killed!" Eren says, frowning at the blond.

"...My grandfather is pretty old already," Armin says quietly. "I'm stuck here for three years, and after that there won't be much time left. The Scouting Legion are the ones who travel beyond the walls, to find more information about titans so we can exterminate them once and for all." When Armin looks up, his blue eyes burn bright with determination. "I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure we can see the world outside."

"We promised to be together," Mikasa says.

Armin shrugs. "I know. But I'm going to join the Scouting Legion. I've decided that ever since my grandfather came back."

Eren wants to say something, but he shuts his mouth. He's decided ever since Hannes saved his mother, he would join the Garrison. It's true, before he had admired the Scouting Legion, but... the Scouting Legion were not protectors. They were hunters. And when hunters find their prey crippled, the only salvation they can give is death. Eren... doesn't want that.

"We'll figure it out," he says eventually. "Later."

Armin nods, and doesn't look up again for the rest of the night.


	4. we are (not) the nameless

"You didn't even kill a single titan on your own," Mina says, rolling her eyes. The others can still see how her hands tremble, despite her best attempts to hide it. The rooftop they're on is tall enough that 5-meter titans won't be a problem; they only have to watch out for the 7-meter ones. So far, the area around them is clear. "I heard from his squad that even Dazz managed one. So much for body count competition."

"I didn't see you killing any either," Thomas shoots back. He's sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him.

"I wasn't the one boasting," she says.

"Guys," Nac tries, but it's half-hearted at best. Bickering is just one way to cope, as long as it doesn't come to blows. Mina sighs and stares at her hands in front of her, trying to still them; Nac gives her the time to calm down and glances to Mylius.

The blond man is perching at the edge of the roof, looking out with a frown on his face. "Do you guys know where Armin and Eren went?" Mylius asks.

Thomas winces. "No. After the abnormal titan ambushed us, I lost track of them."

"Me either," Nac says. He tries to hide his worry. "Do you think they're all right?"

"Eren was one of the top 10, and Armin's smart. They'll be fine." Mina doesn't sound too convinced, but it's the best that any of them can do.

"I guess," Mylius says. "We should-" He stops.

"What?"

"Down there," he says, pointing to an area near the wall, clear of titans. "I think someone's still there."

Thomas gets up and walks over, squinting and trying to look into the distance. "Is that... Hannah?"

"I'll go and check," Mylius says, gripping his swords and shooting hooks out to swing away.

-

It's dark under the table. Very dark, and very quiet.

"There," he says, smiling in satisfaction at the prepared gun in his hands. She turns to give him a dubious stare.

"What use is a gun going to be?" she asks him, voice a harsh whisper. They don't want to attract the titan's attention. Even without poking her head out, she can feel the hungry gaze of the titan right by the window.

Something about the man's smile disturbs her. 

He lifts the gun.

"No!" Somehow, she knows what he's going to do. Maybe it was that smile that tipped her off. But whatever the reason, her hand lashes out and grabs the muzzle of the gun, yanking it down just as he pulls the trigger out of surprise.

The bullet buries itself in the ground, and she twists the gun out of his grip, throwing it aside and out of his grasp. The gunshot still echoes in her ears, but she keeps a firm grip on his wrists. "Don't," she says, because if he kills himself than she might try too.

None of them move for a long time.

-

Hannah's jacket is gone; it's torn to strips and wrapped around the remnant's of Franz's left leg. "I can't carry him," she says as he lands. "He needs medical attention."

After a quick glimpse around to ensure no titans are coming, Mylius sheathes his blades. "I'll carry him," he says. "Just go to the others." He points. "There, that roof. My squad's there, you have to meet up with the others. I'll get him to safety." He gently lifts the unconscious man in his arms.

"Thank you," Hannah says, eyes gleaming with gratitude.


End file.
